


howling coyotes

by Perditus



Category: TRUMP - D2
Genre: Canonical Character Death, Gen, Introspection
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-20
Updated: 2015-07-20
Packaged: 2018-04-10 06:28:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 580
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4380758
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Perditus/pseuds/Perditus
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Each word is glass dragged across his skin. ‘Protect his secret.’</p>
            </blockquote>





	howling coyotes

**Author's Note:**

> anyway, here are my tears. thanks to dad de rico for fucking up his sons
> 
> short & messy

Perhaps it was cruel, or ironic, that he had been the one to know Ul’s fate before Ul himself. Pulled aside in a vast room that he was all too familiar with, not even old enough to understand that the howling coyotes were not the ones he should have been afraid of.

His father spoke in low tones, and he was able to recognize the message for what it was—a carefully veiled threat, a warning not to be a failure of a son. He was not to protect Ul, but he was to protect Ul’s secret.

Of course, his first reaction was one of disgust.

How could it not be? Dhampirs were inferior, tainted with human blood, not belonging in either world. Humans hated them for their vampirness, and vampires hated them for their humanity that marked them as beings to be crushed underfoot. Constantly, he heard his father talk of their dirtiness, his desire to eradicate them from their world.

Such words suddenly seemed hypocritical. Raphael knew he was not one to call his father out on such matters, and he merely accepted the duty that had suddenly befallen upon him. Suddenly, his existence was not one for himself, but an extension of Ul’s.

Everything he did, he did for his brother.

Every action he took was to ensure that the perception of Ul remained as a pure-blooded vampire.

(He could not deny that he cared for his brother. He _would_ not deny it. Every time he looked at him his true nature flared in the back of his head like a siren, demanding to be heard.)

If that meant spending every waking moment watching out for him, then so be it. If that meant keeping tabs on his every movement, he would take it all. Raphael would take the weight of his father’s sins, he would take the weight of being a shield for another, he would take the weight of dashing Ul’s happiness in order to keep him safe from that _other_ dhamphir.

It was for Ul’s safety, his own good, and for some reason that was not something he could understand. (Raphael was fooling himself if he believed he could not understand why his brother was upset by such lengths.

By the time he learned about his true identity, it was clear to see in his eyes how much he hated himself.)

He did not once complain about his responsibility for his father’s actions. Even as he was told he was a failure as Ul confessed in front of him, desperate for a fairytale that would rescue him from his demise.

If killing this Sophie Anderson was the way, he would do. It did not matter if his own life was thrown aside in the process—he had none. Every action was to keep a secret buried and to keep Ul’s life protected, even in disregard to his own.

Yet the dhampir boy lay on the ground and hellfire crawled up his body, and he was struck with a violent thought of once again knowing that he had lost all worth—as the boy was alive and Ul would die soon after.

(Because of his ineptness.)

Even as his body melted, turning into ash, his thoughts were only on the duty given to him before he had the wisdom to know that it was the silent coyotes that came in to bite off the necks of his chickens.

Everything he did, he did for Ul.


End file.
